Matthew HarpsterAfter completing his dissertation at Texas A&M University in 2005 on the design and construction of the 9th-century AD vessel excavated near Bozburun, Turkey, Matthew was a postdoctoral fellow at the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 2006 to 2010, he was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Archaeology and Art History at Eastern Mediterranean University, on Cyprus, where he taught courses in archaeology, underwater archaeology, protection and restoration of built heritage, and the history of science and technology. While there, he developed and implemented the Nautical Archaeology Society Maritime Heritage Awareness Training scheme, the first Bi-Communal program on Cyprus teaching individuals and dive businesses the methods and values of protecting cultural heritage under water, and directed two seasons of underwater surveys along the Karpaz peninsula - the first international underwater surveys in that region in over 30 years. Matthew is a Research Associate with the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, and began his role as the Director of the Kyrenia Shipwreck Collection Restoration Program in 2011.

Paolo VittiPaolo Vitti has been participating in projects to protect and restore built heritage since 1984. Under the auspices of the United Nations Development Programme, the Italian Cultural Heritage Ministry and other organizations, he has conducted archaeological and topographic assessments and surveys in Italy (including Rome, Pompeii, Paestum and Ancona), Greece (including Lemnos, Messenia and on Crete) and on Cyprus. Similarly, he has directed projects to restore and preserve the city walls at Paestum, the Roman Gate and the Iseum at Sybaris, the Armenian Church and Monastery in Nicosia, and the houses above the Roman Amphitheater in Ancona; he was also a consultant for the restoration of the Domus Tiberiana and the Colosseum in Rome and the Bedestan / St Nicholas Church in Nicosia.In addition to his role leading the stabilization and rehabilitation of the infrastructure surrounding the Kyrenia Shipwreck Collection, Paolo is also a tutor with the Restoration Programme in the Faculty of Structural Engineering and Architecture at the ‘La Sapienza’ University in Rome, a Researcher in the Italian School of Archaeology in Athens, and a teacher of Ancient Architecture and Archaeology in the Italian Studies in Tuscany program with the University of Rochester.Asaf OronAfter earning his BSc in Archaeological Conservation from the Institute of Archaeology at University College, London, in 1994, Asaf was the head on-site conservator at the excavations of shipwrecks at Bozburun and Tektas Burnu, Turkey, as well as the Leon Levy Shipwreck Survey off Ashkelon, Israel. He served as an objects conservator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York city from 1994 to 1998, preparing objects for re-installation in the Greek and Roman galleries, prior to completing his MA thesis on the bronze casting technique of the Hellenistic-era Athlit Ram in 2001. From 2002 to 2009, Asaf directed the Conservation Laboratory of the Bodrum Headquarters of the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, which included supervising the creation of the Nixon Griffis’ Conservation Laboratory, as well as managing the laboratory’s wet and dry collections and running a large-scale wood-treatment facility. In addition to his current role working with Pembe to oversee the stabilization and curation of the objects in the Kyrenia Shipwreck Collection, Asaf is completing his PhD on seafaring activity on the Dead Sea in antiquity at the University of Haifa. Pembe ÖzenPembe Özen earned her BA in Archaeology and Art History at Eastern Mediterranean University in 2007, and continued on to the University of Lincoln, in the United Kingdom, to earn her MA in the Conservation of Historic Objects in 2011. In addition to her thesis topic, which was a conservation assessment of the horse skeletons uncovered and excavated from Tomb 50 in the Necropolis of the ancient city of Salamis, Pembe also supervised the stabilization of copper objects from the Kyrenia shipwreck collection in 2010, as well as the handling and conservation of finds from recent studies at Salamis and Tatlısu-Çiftlikdüzü. In 2012, she completed a conditions assessment of the Ethnographic Folk Arts Museum collection in Kyrenia, Cyprus. Pembe will be working with Asaf to oversee the stabilization and curation of the Kyrenia Shipwreck Collection, ensuring its long-term care.